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3-year prison term finalized for ex-defense security chief for power abuse

December 12, 2022

SEOUL, Dec. 13 (Yonhap) — The Supreme Court finalized a three-year prison term for a former Defense Security Command (DSC) chief on Tuesday for leading the military’s illicit online political maneuvers during the Lee Myung-bak administration.

The court upheld an appellate court’s guilty verdict for Bae Dek-sig in a retrial for abuse of power charges. Bae led the DSC from 2010 to 2013.

Bae was first indicted over allegations that his command ran a team that posted about 20,000 online comments favorable to the conservative governments of Lee and his successor, Park Geun-hye, for two years beginning in March 2011.

Bae had previously received three-year imprisonment from a district court, but his sentence was reduced by an appellate court to imprisonment of eight months suspended for two years.

But the Supreme Court ordered his retrial and sent the case to the Seoul High Court, saying his instruction related to the writing of online political comments constitutes an abuse of power.

The Seoul High court sentenced Bae to three years in prison and ordered his immediate detention.